‘Somos Los Carmona’ Sparks Protests

Protests and formal complaints have resulted from the way that huaso, or rural, people are portrayed in the television series Somos Los Carmona. A Maule Sur senator and the mayor of San Javier were among those expressing their displeasure at what they deem to be negative stereotypes put forth by the popular television program. Older Americans would probably recognize the tone of the program, as it is quite similar to a program many grew up with, The Beverly Hillbillies. Both programs present their newly wealthy country folk in a way that certainly could be construed as mocking and stereotypical.

With that said, however, it should be noted that stereotypes form the foundation of a great deal of humor. Who hasn’t snickered at a dumb blonde joke or a man inept in the kitchen joke? Or mother-in-law jokes or the three men of varying ethnic, religious or social groups walk into a bar jokes? How many haven’t laughed at jokes that use people outside of their usual surroundings or circumstances as the source of the punchline? Many highly popular movies, such as Trading Places, are based on exactly that.

It’s important to draw the line at some point. After all, there are some types of ‘jokes’ that aren’t really meant to be jokes, but are more weapons people try to cloak with humor for the purpose of shaping public opinion, Examples of this are the Jewish jokes that were more about dehumanizing Jewish people and desensitizing the German population against Hitler’s ‘final solution’. Yet, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting traditional Jewish mothers and grandmothers, you’d certainly see the humor in that culture’s mother jokes, told affectionately, not cruelly.

The complaints against Somos Los Carmonaare understandable. The neighbor holding the handkerchief over her nose when she must interact with the Carmona family – insinuating that they smell bad – is rude, even hurtful. However, the degree of deliberate mean-spiritedness should be judged carefully. If that is the case, that it is meant to be hurtful to a specific group, perhaps the better answer is market forces, rather than governmental, which should be reserved for final solution scenarios or the calculated oppression of a people. Check out the program and the people when you attend Spanish language school in Chile and give it some thought.